Cavs are paying Lebron, Jamison, Shaq and Mo Williams but they still have a great bench. Orl is paying Howard, Carter, Jameer and their backup center I forgot his name has a similar contract to lamar (10 m?) so overall they are also paid and have a great bench.

farmar and brown duo in the lakers system is probably the worse 7th and 8th guy in the east, if not the whole playoffs.

clarify please? U talking about the 7th game thing or that there has been more than 1 time it happened?

Yes gm 7 against Phoenix. Call it proving a point whatever but I haven't seen anyone except fanboys try to defend his actions in that game. It wasn't just the fact that he took 3 shots in the second half. All he did was stay on the perimeter and swing the ball for the whole half. No setting screens, posting up, playing tenacious d. Nothing. He quit and that's that. When you're one of the greatest scorers in nba history and you take 3 shots in the second half of a GAME 7 somethings wrong no matter what sticking to the gameplan excuse fanboys like to use. I dare you to watch that half and tell me he went all out.

No, in the Phoenix game it was more the complete lack of anything resembling effort that did it for me, and which was obvious to all non-Laker fans. He'd come down every possession, pass off at the 3-point line and just stand there loafing around -- no attempt to penetrate, shoot, post up; no defensive intensity; no attempt to crash the board, no attempt to draw doubles to create for other. Just complete passivity and resignation, and a complete lack of heart, from the (at that time) best player in the game.

Yes gm 7 against Phoenix. Call it proving a point whatever but I haven't seen anyone except fanboys try to defend his actions in that game. It wasn't just the fact that he took 3 shots in the second half. All he did was stay on the perimeter and swing the ball for the whole half. No setting screens, posting up, playing tenacious d. Nothing. He quit and that's that. When you're one of the greatest scorers in nba history and you take 3 shots in the second half of a GAME 7 somethings wrong no matter what sticking to the gameplan excuse fanboys like to use. I dare you to watch that half and tell me he went all out.

Here are my thoughts on that game and series... His team quit before he did, and I truly believe that. I understand that he quit, I agree. But his team did before he did. If you watch the first half of that game, as a basketball fan, you will not be able to sit through it. Smush parker passed on 5 open threes in the 2nd q alone. Just scared to shoot. Kwame drops the ball every pass he gets. Lamar didn't even get to the stadium until the 4th quarter and it was over.

Kobe actually got the team to almost winning that series, and it is really unfathomable of how he did that. He makes a damn buzzerbeater to go up 3-1 and in game 5 he scores 50 points. Tim thomas and his 3 was the difference. Kobe actually was 1 missed 3 away from taking kwame brown and smush parker to the 2nd round, not counting the other ridiculous scrubs on the team. I don't even know if more than 2 people on that team are still in the NBA (Luke and walton). Kobe knew he lost in the 2nd half of that game 7, because everyone else on that team knew they lost in the 2nd quarter. That game was well within reach when everyone started giving up their shots and instead of running the offense play the "give it to kobe at the end of the shotclock" game.

However I'm pretty sure literally any other game you say that he gave up or quit prematurely in I'd agree with, but that phx game really pisses me off because the whole story is never said.

No, in the Phoenix game it was more the complete lack of anything resembling effort that did it for me, and which was obvious to all non-Laker fans. He'd come down every possession, pass off at the 3-point line and just stand there loafing around -- no attempt to penetrate, shoot, post up; no defensive intensity; no attempt to crash the board, no attempt to draw doubles to create for other. Just complete passivity and resignation, and a complete lack of heart, from the (at that time) best player in the game.

not in the first half.. not in the first half.. I'll never forget it, smush parker stole 2 years of kobes prime away. I think it was at lakers down 15, halfway into 2nd quarter. Something around there.. Kobe gives to wide open smush for 3, he goes in shooting form for a second then dribbles away. That was when lakers lost, and kobe realized it shortly after that.

not in the first half.. not in the first half.. I'll never forget it, smush parker stole 2 years of kobes prime away. I think it was at lakers down 15, halfway into 2nd quarter. Something around there.. Kobe gives to wide open smush for 3, he goes in shooting form for a second then dribbles away. That was when lakers lost, and kobe realized it shortly after that.

No, not in the first half. I was talking about the second half where he flat out quit and showed no heart.

No, not in the first half. I was talking about the second half where he flat out quit and showed no heart.

So you're just going to look at what happened in the 2nd half without looking at the 1st half for reason why he might do that? Like I said his team quit in the 1st half so him being the kind of guy that gets mad at teammates not playing as hard as him/wanting it as much he quit in the 2nd half and started asking for trades to make the team better.

Didn't see the game, but to those who did: did Kobe sabotage the game by not shooting a lot intentionally? I see that he attempted just 10 FG's, after being roundly criticized in the media and by PJax for shooting too much/shooting inefficiently. Kobe has a history of pouting and "trying to prove a point" after being criticized by purposely not shooting a lot. Was that the case tonight?

This tactic was an abject failure simply because Kobe was pouting all game long. Obviously reacting to Phil Jackson’s public statement that he was taking too many bad shots, Kobe decided not to shoot at all until 9:09 of the second quarter. He wound up taking a mere 10 shots in all and missed one of his only two free throws.

When Jackson was questioned on camera after the opening quarter about Kobe’s disinclination to shoot, he smiled tightly and said that Bryant was focusing on getting his teammates involved.

Hogwash.

What Kobe was really focusing on was to stick it to his coach for questioning his shot-selection with the whole world watching. In fact, Kid Kobe’s done this same sad act on several previous occasions.

yes, rosen's piece on phil jackson's daily routine a few years back, including detailing phil's 'genius' method of "pressing fresh blueberries gently into the surface of his pancakes to make a perfect breakfast" was a real page turner.

"OKC is one shy of Lakers opponent playoff record for free throws made (43 @ BOS on 6/12/84)."

I guess OKC just played the most aggressive game vs the Lakers in 20 years right?

What's so unbelievable about that? The Lakers were getting into the penalty early every quarter.

Artest is fouling the entire game so if you wanted to you could call a foul on him at any point, and his last foul on Westbrook seemed to be on purpose. Fisher always gets killed by opposing pgs (hell, he got lit up by Troy Hudson) but he picked up even more fouls trying to draw bogus charges in the paint when he wasn't really there or out of the circle in time.

Westbrook has no jumper outside of 17ft and drives almost exclusively. James Harden was going to the basket all night. Then you get them in the penalty and off the ball fouls and over the back fouls still results in free throws.